A couple of months ago my gallbladder handed in her notice. “I’m plumb wore out,” she said.” Carrying all those stones is just too much.” “I’m sorry to hear that,” I replied. “But I can understand why you feel that way. You have served me well for nigh on 7 decades so you deserve retirement. I will set about arranging for that.”
And so, today, November 15, 2017, at 1pm Eastern Standard Time, Gallbladder will be relieved of duty. A little ceremony is planned at the Markham Stouffville Hospital where there will be a surgeon, an anesthetist, a couple of nurses and, of course, I will be there too. I will be off in la-la- land but I will be present in body if not in mind. It will be a respectful ceremony and will relieve Gallbladder of her duties. Liver will be sorry to see her go but …c’est la vie…. and Liver will soon adjust to life without her.
So there you have it. Once I have attended the ceremony I may be a bit slow to respond to comments but fear not, I shall be back.
Now….for the good news! Biasini and I have forged ahead to new territory. Nothing too fancy but a big step up in the level of engagement and connection. If you follow this blog you will know that I struggled through six weeks of no stirrups work to improve the effectiveness of my lower leg. And now, at last, it has begun to pay off. Here are two videos that will give you an idea of our improved work at the trot. In the lesson we worked on doing medium trot up the long side and half way up returning to a few strides of collected trot, then back to medium trot. In the first video you will see us do a medium trot up the whole of the long side and then Belinda tells me to let him stretch and you can see him drop his head down to stretch.
In this second video you can see us doing shoulder in and a volte (8 meter circle) and a return to shoulder in.
I have been so happy with our progress. I am now able to ride a nice, connected trot with engagement and swinging movement. It is a thrill to ride a horse when they move like this. It feels so buoyant! And to be able to get this trot and maintain it through movements is just wonderful.
I will have a few weeks off riding while I adjust to Gallbladder being gone but Biasini will be working with my coach Belinda Trussell and doing some non dressage work with trainer Lynsey Rowan. Biasini and I will keep you updated on all that!
I have just seen the WordPress Daily Prompt. It is the word ‘honk‘. So I guess after today I can have a bumper sticker on my car that says: “Honk if you are gallbladder free!”
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